Rotenberg, David

views updated

ROTENBERG, David

PERSONAL: Male. Education: University of Toronto, B.A.; Yale University, M.F.A.

ADDRESSES: Home—Toronto, Canada. Office—York University, 4700 Keele St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, acting and directing teacher, 1987—.

WRITINGS:

The Shanghai Murders: A Mystery of Love and Ivory, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1998.

The Lake Ching Murders: a Mystery of Fire and Ice, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS: An acting and directing teacher in Toronto, David Rotenberg earned critical success with his first novel, The Shanghai Murders. The book, set in contemporary Shanghai, is both a murder mystery and an exploration of cultural differences and rapid social change. It begins when the mutilated corpse of a New Orleans cop is found in a city alley—an event reported in the Shanghai Daily News before police even arrive on the scene. Zhong Fong, head of the city's Special Investigation Unit, suspects from the start that the case could turn into a political scandal of international dimensions. As Fong tracks the case's many puzzling clues, including shards of ivory in the corpse's lungs, he is confronted with painful memories of the death of his adulterous actress wife, Fu Tsong, four years earlier. Rotenberg used his professional familiarity with the stage to develop a subplot about Geoffrey Hyland, a Canadian theatre director and Fu Tsong's former lover, who has returned to Shanghai to direct a Chinese production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. Also adding to the novel's complexity are the appearance of ritual killer Loa Wei Fen, the prime suspect in the murder, and the victim's widow Amanda Pitman, who comes to Shanghai to retrieve his body.

Many critics gave The Shanghai Murders superlative reviews. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly deemed it "irresistibly exotic," while Library Journal critic Rex E. Klett hailed it as an "awesome" achievement with "a wonderfully nefarious plot." Wes Lukowsky, in Booklist, praised Rotenberg's literary debut with an "extraordinarily accomplished" thriller and especially admired the book's surprising conclusion. Though a critic for Kirkus Reviews felt that Fong did not emerge as a sufficiently interesting character, the writer noted that Rotenberg "scores points for [his] vivid Shanghai sets."

In The Lake Ching Murders Zhong Fong is again featured. After spending two years in a Chinese prison, Fong hopes to salvage his career by discovering who killed seventeen people aboard a yacht. The people were not only killed, but were tortured in a hideous way. As many of the dead were not Chinese, it has the potential to develop into an international political situation. Booklist's Wes Lukowsky called it an "enlightening glimpse into the inner workings of justice in rural China." A Publishers Weekly reviewer noted the twisted plot and called The Lake Ching Murders "sheer entertainment."